Bad Behavior
by 13bean
Summary: About a week after another life threatening battle for Fairy Tail, Mira plans a fancy party as a "celebration" for the guild's victory. Elfman and Evergreen are getting married (for real this time), a lot of members have something to say about it, and Natsu and Lucy decide to kindle their friendship over a little magical wine, and a little bad behavior. NaLu.
1. Chapter 1

This is inspired by all of the tracks from The Maine's 'Lovely Little Lonely' album.

Expecting it to be about 4-5 chapters.

* * *

It makes sense why Mira, Lisanna, and the Raijinshuu banned everyone from the guild for the past two days.

The tables are covered in pink and green tablecloths. Spring flower centerpieces adorn each. Shimmering streamers hang from the balconies and pillars. And most glaring of all - random marble statues of winged babies and maidens are scattered all over the hall.

Something is up, and Lucy feels like she's the only one currently out of the loop. Instead of a usual greeting, she pouts when she meets Lisanna at the bar. "Is it me or is this party very… Evergreen themed?"

Lisanna hums and pretends she has no idea what Lucy is talking about, which deepens Lucy's pout.

Behind Lucy, the guild doors burst open extravagantly. Cana walks in smugly and strikes a photoshoot pose in her blue, velvet dress. "It ain't no party til the booze arrives!" A crew of the guild's men begin rolling in huge barrels the size of cows on wheeled carts.

"Comrades! Make way for the gem of the party - the cake!" Lucy never could understand how Erza manages to project her voice over the entire guild, like she has a personal megaphone system installed in the building just for herself. Right behind the last barrel of booze, rolls in a tiered cake taller than Elfman; frosted a light pink and adorned with raining flower petal pieces.

Erza and Cana start a shouting argument about what makes a party between booze and cake, while a quartet of music wizards launch into a festive, upbeat tune from the stage. Lisanna escapes from Lucy, mumbling that she has to refill the appetizers, leaving Lucy to slouch into her regular bar stool.

She arranges her skirt and chuckles to herself, thinking back to a few hours ago when Leo and Virgo had a similar argument as Erza's and Cana's current one, about which star dress Lucy should wear. The two spirits collected votes from the whole gang back in the celestial world, and Capricorn's turned out to be the winner.

Judging by the other female guild members in sight, including Erza with a sexy crimson piece, Lucy decides she approves of the Capricorn dress for the… Evergreen themed night.

The wizard quartet nears the end of their first tune, which Mirajane takes as cue to stroll up on stage. There are a few late stragglers, but for the most part, the guild is present and focussed on Mira and what she has to say as the party opener.

"Dearest members of Fairy Tail!" Mira is absolutely beaming in a classic yellow dress. "Tonight, we celebrate the most wonderful of news! Yes, we have gathered together to commemorate our latest victory, but it gets even better… behold, my little brother Elfman is getting married to the love of his life, Evergreen! And this time, it's for real, not a scheme to win against me!"

Lucy's jaw, and the jaws of every other guild member present, drops. Guild members left and right make unbecoming, disbelieving noises. "Come on up, you two!" Mira's smile widens even more as she beckons for the two wizards. Evergreen walks up confidently, followed by a sheepish Elfman.

Naturally, Natsu Dragneel decides to make his loud entrance at this critical moment.

"Sorry I'm late! The baker was giving away free fire!" Happy the cat waves enthusiastically behind Natsu.

Mira's glowing grin wavers just a little bit. "Hello there, Natsu… Will someone please catch him up to speed…?"

Lucy brings her arm down in an iron-grip hook around Natsu's neck, simultaneously grabbing Happy by a fitted, red bowtie the cat decided to match his mini suit with. "Seriously! The nerve of you two!"

Most of the smart guild members choose to ignore Natsu's delayed reaction to the big announcement when Lucy sits her partners down at the bar and fills them in. Up on stage, Mira proceeds by handing the mic over to Evergreen. "Care to provide us the juicy details, Elfman? Evergreen?"

The fairy wizard looks amazing, pairing the smoothest, silkiest green dress with a wreath of flowers on her head, elegant but not overdone flower jewelry, then a final touch in the form of a pair of flowery, earthy flip flops. "Well for starters, Elfman was being the man of all men during our fight together with these stubborn wizards from that guild…"

Lucy misses the bulk of Evergreen's proposal story, unfortunately, thanks to a couple of her very noisy partners who decide that swallowing mouthfuls of food and then seeing who can belch louder is more interesting. What makes them stop is a snarky whisper to quiet down from Carla. Happy argues that Natsu forced him to do it, of course.

"…asked me in the hospital room at night when everyone else who got injured slept, and I said yes! We want the wedding be next month!"

Cheers and applause erupt from the guild. Some are swiping tears from their eyes, like Lisanna and Fried, and master Makarov is full on bawling. Amidst the shouts of "Congratulations!" and "Finally!"s from scattered places in the crowd, Elfman's declaration about how getting married is a man gets drowned out.

Mira takes back the microphone, eyes glistening as well. "That's about it for our big announcement! I'm sure some of you realized by now that the party's theme was specially chosen for our bride-to-be…"

"Wait!"

No one particularly needs to turn their heads, because the resonant, booming voice projecting loud enough to make Natsu cover his ears? Belongs to Erza Scarlet and Erza Scarlet only.

"Where is the ring?"

Erza is suddenly in the center of the stage, a very serious set of eyes boring into Elfman. "Where is the highlight of the marriage proposal - the ring?"

Elfman gulps. "Well, the whole proposal was unplanned, so I actually didn't…"

Before he can finish, poor Elfman is flying through the air, crashing into Jet and Droy.

"Unacceptable! Listen up, everyone! From hence forth, no member of Fairy Tail will partake in a proper marriage proposal without a ring! Such as this marvelous one here!"

Lucy's eyes about pop out of their sockets, and she's pretty sure Natsu and the guild share in her state. On Erza's outstretched left hand, there is a gleaming, thick gold band around the ring finger, studded with a red gem so sparkly, it entices the eyes and makes Lucy see her world tinged in red for a few seconds.

Erza wags her hand in a half circle on stage, her face so smug it could be evil even. The room is dead silent, until the loud, blatant noise of someone choking horribly somewhere in the back breaks the spell. Natsu, Happy, and Lucy's heads creak back and forth from the choking man with bright blue hair, to the stage.

"Jellal proposed to Erza with a ring?!"

The guild goes wild, everyone talking everywhere.

"It just so happens, yes. Now, for us, we do not plan on holding a wedding any time soon," Erza uses her projection(?) magic again to shut everyone up. "This ring is more of a promise of our eventual, future path, and of course, Elfman and Evergreen's wedding celebration can come first. But as it stands, dearest Elfman, you have been beaten fair and square in a battle of which man made the best proposal."

Evergreen is red and fuming to Erza's right, but Mira… something dark and ominous might or might not be smoking up from Mira's head, Lucy isn't too sure.

"Excuse me! I have something I want to say too!"

The guild has just about had enough of the eyes and jaws popping out of their bodily places, but Lucy has a gut feeling that there's more surprises coming, because the second interjection isn't just from anybody. It's from her best friend Levy, who jumps up to the stage with her small, quick body.

"…Levy..?" Erza recoils when Levy sticks her head too close to the red gem of the proposal ring. Levy puffs her cheeks in response, turning toward the crowd. At this point, the guild is just about ready for anything.

"Like I said, I have an announcement to make!" Levy squeezes her eyes shut as she shouts. "I'm pregnant with Gajeel's baby!"

Turns out, the guild wasn't ready for that.

Most of the members are screaming in shock, but Natsu's voice is the closest to Lucy, and therefore the most painful to her ear drums. Grimacing and surveying the guild's reaction to the newest turn of events, Lucy thinks back on the past few weeks. That's why her friend was so moody lately…

And then, an eerie quiet fills the air as all heads sort of simultaneously turn toward a back corner across from the bar, where it just so happens that Gajeel is standing next to Jellal. While Jellal is still getting over his choking fit, Gajeel has more or less turned into a stone statue, ready to crack and crumble into dust at any moment. Even more unfittingly, Panther Lily the Exceed is nodding in understanding near Gajeel's feet, smirking as if he's known everything all along.

Then, once again, all hell breaks loose. The guild's patience has run drier than Gray's chapped lips in winter, and the united voice of congratulatory feeling is replaced with anger, drama, questions.

"Gray sama, Juvia wants to become pregnant with your baby, please!" Juvia rips free her top (thankfully her outfit is a two piece) and pounces Gray, who for some reason is already only wearing black slacks and a bowtie. The two tangle and roll off, coincidentally, in Jellal and Gajeel's direction.

"This is a monumental moment for the future generations of Fairy Tail! Now I can retire as guild master in peace!" Master Makarov's tears begin creating a warm pool in the middle of the hall.

"This was supposed to be a big party for my little brother!" Mira stomps her foot, something dark and ominous definitely smoking from her white hairs.

"Levy! If you get married, does this mean the end of Shadow Gear?"

Levy smiles at her deflated partners, Jet and Droy. "Of course not! I'll be out of commission for about a year, but after that, we'll have our 6th member of Shadow Gear!"

Since when was Shadow Gear 5 members? The floating thought coasts by in Lucy's mind, but she doesn't have time to linger on it long.

"…Levy… Are you suggesting that Gajeel… beat us at the best proposal?"

Erza is still on that, and Levy tries to pass it off that she was just caught up in the moment and burst up on stage, and all of the girls on stage (except Mira) flush bright red, modesty suddenly kicking in as they congratulate one another on all the news.

With her sweet, angelic voice, Mira declares, "Proposing by making a baby is absolutely not model behavior! Gajeel, you are officially on my naughty list!"

Thankfully, that was exactly what Fairy Tail needed to begin shaving away at some of the tension and frustration built up from news after shocking news. Mira curtly disperses the crowd, and the three women on stage trail away discussing the specifics of whose wedding might come first while getting down to the floor. Cana roars that the party is a drag and breaks out the alcohol, and the more Fairy Tail-esque part of the night finally commences.

In general, no one seems heavily opposed to the three couples' engagement news, except maybe Lucy.

"Natsu! Why are all of our friends getting married all at once?!"

Natsu and Happy are back to chowing down again. "Huh? Gray's not getting married."

Lucy pauses, glances at the tangle of Gray and Juvia across the hall, and snaps back to Natsu.

"You're right. Why are most of our friends getting married all at once?!"

Natsu just shrugs. "Not sure. Maybe cuz they feel like it."

"They lllllike each other!" Happy sprays bits of half chewed fish in the air.

Lucy deflates with a sigh, turning away from the unsightly boy and cat pair and dodging the spray of fish without even looking.

"Lucy san..?" The ever graceful Wendy and Carla save poor Lucy from the unhelpful company of her partners. She greets them gratefully.

Wendy somehow doesn't seem as cheerful, sort of wiggling in her little body and starting to say something, then pausing, then repeat. After a sharp word from Carla, Wendy finally points in the direction of the stage shyly. "Don't tell me you and Natsu san…"

Before Wendy can finish, Lucy's shout darts out from her throat. "Absolutely NOT!"

Wendy flinches and Natsu and Happy pause to stare at Lucy weirdly. Out of the corner of her eye, Lucy sees Cana pushing through with several jugs hugged to her chest.

"Sorry about that, Wendy… It's just… I'm absolutely not getting marred any time soon. You have my word on it."

"Oh, I see… well, Carla and I need to go congratulate Evergreen san… and Erza san… and Levy san… and then we need to head home, since it's getting late. And everybody will probably get drunk soon… Anyway, have a good time, Lucy san, Natsu san, Happy!"

Wendy and Carla bound off with waves, and Lucy remembers the critical thing she vowed to herself before arriving at the guild. She doesn't have time to spare, so she grabs Natsu by the arm and gives him a very serious, Lucy glare.

"Natsu, I need you to help me."

"With what?"

"Remember that time I got drunk and you had to carry me home?"

Natsu frowns, wiping crumbs off his mouth. "Mm hmm."

"And that other time that I got drunk and you had to carry me home?"

"Uh… huh."

"And that other night that I got drunk and you had to carry me home?"

His scowl deepens. "Wait, Lucy. Which time are you talking about? That one time, or that other time? Or is it that…"

"Doesn't matter! What matters is that if I keep having any more incidents like that, I'm never gonna get married to a decent guy! And look at Evergreen and Erza and Levy! They're getting way too far ahead of me!"

"But you just told Wendy you're not getting married soon."

"That's not the point! The point is, you have to help me make sure I don't get drunk tonight, got it?"

"Why does it have to be me?"

"Are you going to help a friend or not!"

Happy the cat flies in and lands on Natsu's head. "But you're so funny when you're drunk, Lucy!"

"Quiet, Happy! Cana is coming this way!" Lucy leans her face closer to Natsu's. "Natsu, when Cana tries to make us drink, can you drink everything up so there won't be any left for me? And for the rest of the night, do the same thing, so my lips won't touch an ounce alcohol."

"That… doesn't sound that hard, but what's in it for me?"

"The next job we go on, you and Happy can have all the reward money. I'll help for free." Lucy can't hide the grimace in her voice at this.

"And I get to choose the job, right?"

Lucy nods, moments before Cana sweeps in elegantly. "Alright, you two! Bottoms up!"

As promised, Natsu sloshes down all of the jugs in Cana's arms, one, two, three, four. Followed by a big, loud, belch, and then a "Thank you for the meal!"

Cana's face turns devilish, showering Natsu with fiery words about how he wasn't supposed to drink all of those because they were for the four of them. Which is like watching some words scribbled on wads of paper and tossed weakly at Natsu's pink head. They just bounce off harmlessly, having less than zero effect.

"Lucy, come get some more drinks with me." Cana wags a finger in Lucy's direction.

"Well actually, Natsu, Happy, and I were gonna go congratulate Elfman and Evergreen next…"

Cana doesn't seem too happy about it, but she lets them go with a final devil glare. She mumbles something about finding Laxus or Laki instead.

"You pulled it off perfectly, Natsu!" Lucy beams at him, handing him a napkin.

"I'm gonna be so full by the end of the night…"

"Oh please, your stomach can take it! And I wasn't kidding about going to see Elfman and Evergreen. Come on!"

Lucy has high hopes for maintaining her composure tonight, as long as she keeps close to her dragon slaying partner with a bottomless pit for a stomach, or so she believes.


	2. Chapter 2

Bless those of you who were kind enough to review, favorite, and follow this little thingamabob of mine. I'm certain you will all be repaid with something happy in your day :)

* * *

Lucy genuinely is happy for Elfman and Evergreen, despite Evergreen's nonchalant comment about how Lucy might have a better chance of getting a boyfriend now that the gorgeous fairy, Evergreen's truly, is off the market.

Then the two girls proceed to watch in disgust as Natsu decides to give Elfman a congratulatory brawl. A literal, physical one. The brawl begins with Natsu and Elfman throwing punches and kicks between just the two of them, but after some time, Lucy spots blurry heads of dark blue hair, a long and thick black mane, a rather reluctant head of electric blue, and even a whiskered, feline head of blackish fur, mixed up in the dust.

Some idiot bangs Elfman in the head and sends him flying into Evergreen. They crash into the statue of a baby with wings on its back and a bow and arrow in hand. Evergreen is a whirlwind of crying about one of her favorite statues and fuming about Elfman not treating his fiancee respectfully, and Elfman is a sight to behold, getting on his knees obediently to beg for forgiveness.

Before she realizes it, Lucy is smiling, watching them bicker. Until a fierce force grasps her head and squishes it into something soft and bouncy. "Ow, Erza!"

"I'm truly glad that you congratulate me and Jellal on our engagement, Lucy."

"Erza, literally the only thing I said to you is 'Ow'."

"And it was all that was needed to be said."

When Lucy gets over Erza's weird way of jumping ahead of the conversation, she wraps her arms around her friend tightly, warmly. Overcome with emotions, she can't help the tears in her eyes when they come. It's all she can do to raise her eyes to the ceiling and bat them away furiously, before her mascara starts running.

"There, there, Lucy. Before you know it, it will be your turn."

Lucy pulls back and blinks away the last of her tears. "No way! I've still got a long way to go."

"Lucy dear, you've nowhere to go. You have everything you need, right here in Fairy Tail."

In one sense, Lucy understands Erza's words and they move her deeply. In another, she doesn't exactly agree as to whether the words are true or not.

But it doesn't matter at the moment, because the night belongs to them, not Lucy. So she lets herself go to prodding Erza about what kind of dress she wants to wear, what the proposal was like, why she didn't tell Lucy earlier, and on and on.

Somewhere along the line, Lucy and Erza both nod contently as they watch Jellal suspend Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, and Lily in the air, trapped in glowing, golden light. "That is enough fighting and destroying the guild!" Lucy thinks it won't be long before Jellal develops magical voice projection powers.

The minute Lucy approaches within five feet of Levy, she bursts into ugly sobs. While Lucy and Levy cling to each other and have a meltdown on the ground, Natsu and Gajeel, let down from their golden suspension traps, stand around awkwardly, making faces and whisper-yelling to each other to do something.

And then, Juvia joins in on the waterworks, sulking about how "Gray sama" refuses to impregnate her with his baby but also rejoicing about all of the engagement news. This poses as problematic, seeing as Juvia's tears are equivalent to two sizable waterfalls, quickly creating two trails making their way toward the dance floor.

With a sigh, Gray turns Juvia's tear-falls into neatly sized ice cubes and sends them raining into a bucket near the punch bowls. He collects Juvia by taking her hand and separating her from a partially wet Lucy and Levy, yells at her to put on a shirt even though he's still not wearing one, and leads her away for a dance.

Laugh-crying, Lucy asks Gajeel and Levy if they've thought of any names for the baby. "Iron!" Gajeel snickers all too triumphantly.

"What kinda crappy name is that!" Natsu snaps.

"It's better than Fire!"

"Who said I was gonna name my kid Fire, you block head!"

"Knowing you, you were probably thinking of something worse than Fire, like Flaming Fist or Dragon Thumb!"

The only thing that keeps the two dragon slayers from throwing punches again is the looming presence of Erza and Jellal's unified glares. Even Lucy can feel it, sending chills down her spine.

Mira approaches them with a tray of what looks like fairy themed cocktails. Before Natsu can react, Gajeel leaps into action.

"Whoa there, Mirajane. This over here is a no-alcohol zone. Absolutely zero booze within a ten feet perimeter of Levy McGarden."

Mira nods in understanding. "Not even for you, Lucy, or Natsu?"

The iron dragon slayer clears his throat, then pulls out an official looking sheet of paper from his person, pointing to it solemnly. "No consumption of alcohol will be allowed in the Levy McGraden zone. Anyone who violates the rule will be fined with an iron fist in their face."

"Understood." Mira smiles and turns away, either convinced of the actual(?) legitimacy of the document or just finding Gajeel's attitude too cute to refute.

Suppressing the excitement brought on by the sheer luck of Gajeel's overprotectiveness, Lucy turns and winks at Natsu. He shrugs, then seems to have some second thoughts, suddenly bouncing with energy and pointing toward the food tables. Lucy waves him away defeatedly, resolving to stay safe in the Levy McGarden zone a while longer while her hired dragon slayer partner goes for his third dinner.

With the boys and the distractions gone, the conversation takes on a tone for the more serious. A faraway look settles in Levy's eyes as she tells Lucy about her decision, to spend the night before their raid on the southern guild with Gajeel, half caught up in the heat of oncoming battle but also in their shared desires to make it out of the battle alive, then continue to walk toward the future together.

It's a beautiful story that gets tears pooling in Lucy's eyes again, and goes along hand in hand with Elfman and Evergreen's story, which Lucy had to ask someone to recollect. Ezra's story is the one that sets off the waterworks again, though. While helping Fairy Tail's raid of the southern guild, Jellal had faced off against an elder member of the enemy guild, who had turned evil after witnessing his wife killed in battle. With his last breath, the defeated wizard gave Jellal the ring with the red gem, blessing Jellal and Erza with a hopeful kind of magic so that the two may never have to witness the other facing cruel death, but live long, full lives together, with victory on their side.

When Lucy thinks back to what she'd been up to the night before the raid, it's all she can do to restrain herself from crawling into a mouse hole. She'd found Natsu and Happy making themselves at home in her apartment, again, and she'd been too anxious to sleep, so the three of them played board games all night until they woke up the next morning with game pieces digging into their arms and legs.

"That's wonderful, Lu-chan," Levy says when Lucy shares the embarrassing recollection, "It means you truly feel safe being a part of the guild and being surrounded by your friends, and so you don't necessarily feel that you have to face your fears of the unknown just yet. And… I understand how being so close with Natsu can make you feel that way."

They glance in the general direction of the cries for more food and "Aye sir"s, which makes Levy giggle and Lucy sigh. "You don't have to rush things just because everyone else is, Lu-chan. You take things your own pace, okay?"

Lucy exhales another drawn-out breath of air. "I wish Aquarius felt the same way, Levy-chan."

"How is the search for Aquarius's key going?"

"It's… complicated. But now that the raid is over, I'll eventually get back to searching seriously again."

And then, it becomes impossible for Lucy to keep Levy to herself any longer. Levy is one of the stars of the night, after all.

A pair of cold, calloused hands grab Lucy from behind and pulls her away from the former Levy McGarden corner. Lucy spins around in alarm, the music closer and louder to her ears now, and whistles in admiration.

"Don't you clean up nice, Gray!"

Back in a crisp, buttoned shirt, a dark gray vest, a classy navy bowtie, and a short-waisted jacket with a trailing coattail, Gray finally looks the part for the fancy party, thank goodness. Lucy's eyes then wander from where she is on the dance floor, catching Juvia laughing contently over a couple of beers with Lisanna near the drinks table.

"You and Natsu up to no good again?" Gray leads Lucy in a waltz, his movements gentlemanly yet his face, full of mischief and knowing.

"We are not! I just made a deal with him that he would help me not get drunk tonight, is all. Don't even think about offering me alcohol, Gray!"

Lucy goes off twirling in a sweep in her graceful, Capricorn dress. She's a little worried about getting Juvia started with the whole love rival business again, but it's been too long since she'd had a nice partner dance with anyone other than a dragon who knows nothing but food.

"Say, Lucy." She can smell a faint hint of alcohol in Gray's breath. "Why does Juvia keep thinking that you're her love rival? No one else thinks that, right? What should I do to… make her feel less insecure? How do I make her a little happier? And not like, the speeding ticket kind, because we're not ready for that yet… but, you know."

Midway into her next sip of beer, Juvia meets Lucy's eyes from a distance at least 15 feet away. Gray chooses this untimely moment to pull Lucy in close to avoid running into another dancing pair, and Juvia just outright sprays her beer from her mouth, and then some. Lucy shakes her head, turning just in time so she doesn't have to deal with Juvia's death glare.

"Honestly, Juvia does get a little… over-analytical. But nowadays, I'd say it's more of a… mouth reaction? It is partly your fault, Gray. Being the cold and expressionless type that you are," Lucy falters on a bit of slightly wet flooring. She suspects Juvia is behind it, which just makes the little trick all the more wanton, seeing as how it makes Gray react by tightening his grip around Lucy's waist.

With a sigh, Lucy saunters away in another turn, noticing the coldness, but also the gentleness, in Gray's fingers as he supports her hand. She returns to her place, left hand taut on his shoulder, and stares into his face. Scrutinizing, deducing. That permanent half scowl etched in a line above his "droopy eyes", the little scar on his left temple, and the surprisingly perfect mixture of heart and intelligence reflected in his eyes.

When she's done, she closes her eyes and hums approvingly, which just earns a cocked eyebrow from her dance partner. "All things aside… If there's any man in Fairy Tail who can make a girl happy, it's you, Gray. So I wouldn't worry too much. You're doing a good job."

The corner of his lip twitching upward, Gray asks, "You really think this?"

Lucy nods with a little laugh. "Yes, I do. It's just that, Juvia is the kind of girl who has to give her everything, almost to the extreme. She doesn't quite expect much in return, just your affection is all she needs. Which, I know you're full of. Everyone in the guild can see that. I think Juvia is starting to see it too, even if it is just a little glimpse for now. It'll take some time, is all. You just do what you're best at, Gray, and she'll learn to accept your affection over time. You're still learning to be on the receiving end of all of Juvia's affection after all, aren't you?"

Gray can't seem to argue, and instead opts to turn his gaze over to the drinks, searching for the familiar head of pastel blue. Lucy teeters on another patch of wet flooring, bumping her nose into Gray's shoulder with an "Ouch…"

"I guess you're right." For the next few minutes, Lucy and Gray enjoy an absence of conversation between them, leisurely following the upbeat tune of music.

And then, Gray clears his throat, making Lucy glance up to catch a faraway, but glowing, smile on his lips. "Is Natsu making you happy?"

Just as quickly as Lucy is startled by the question, she has the answer on her tongue. "Yeah."

"Is he making you feel safe?"

The second question whisks Lucy back to that night filled with board games, and Lucy hums, nodding.

"Good. If he ever makes you sad, if he ever makes you shed a single tear, you come tell me. Okay?"

Rather than answering, Lucy just grins and lightly smacks his chest.

The song comes to an end and Gray excuses himself, warning Lucy to be careful of water. She weaves her way through the crowd and sits with Lisanna, who points animatedly to where Gray and Juvia have secured themselves a quiet corner, hidden behind a few columns and tables. Gray tangles his fingers in Juvia's, whispers something in her ear, and when she blushes, he leans in boldly, kissing her until Juvia goes entirely red. Lucy and Lisanna laugh quietly, seeing Juvia hide her face in her palms when Gray runs out of breath and lets her go.

Lucy and Lisanna get lost in conversations about this and that, but mostly, it's Lucy listening in and whining in agreement over all of Lisanna's cute complaints. Such as how no one even understands what it feels like to send a brother off to marriage, or how Kinana skips out on work in the kitchen way too often these days because of her clingy boyfriend, or how there's no such thing as a decent guy to settle down with in this rowdy guild, so maybe Lucy can help a sister out and set Lisanna up on a little rendezvous with the frowny faced, dark haired dragon slayer from that Saber Tooth guild.

Lucy really is thankful to have Lisanna. It's as if Lisanna is one of the few girls in the guild who seem to share with Lucy in that unspoken loneliness of seeing everyone around them change, grow, and take leaps into the future. And not just that, but she can slow down and put a stopper in that bittersweetness with her carefree chatter. Downing the rest of her current mug, Lisanna raises her voice cheerfully.

"Let's just forget about all those weddings we're gonna have to plan, for tonight. It's not like we're the ones getting married anyway, right? We're still young. We ain't got time for tomorrows. Let's go dance! Come dance with me, Lucy!"

Off Lucy goes, to dance, for the second time that night. There's a ruckus somewhere over by the alcohol barrels, with Cana and Master Makarov yelling boisterously while standing on top of a particularly well-decorated cask. Mira has taken the stage with her electric guitar, and it isn't long before Lisanna drifts away to the front of the crowd with a shout, leaving Lucy behind.

Lucy stands there, alone in the crowd of guild members, swaying. The noises around her blur together, and Lisanna's last words ring resolutely true in a corner of her mind. Sluggishly turning this way and that in her little spot on the dance floor, Lucy searches for her friends, drinking their happiness in from afar with her unblinking eyes, intense. Levy and Gajeel, headbanging right under the stage with Lisanna. Erza, Gray, Juvia, and Jellal, popping open a brand new bottle of champagne and passing around glasses for a toast. Happy and Lily, snoring away on a table scattered with fish bones and kiwi peels.

And Natsu Dragneel, her partner in crime, making his way toward her, his fangs gleaming with his ardent grin. Bumping shoulders with guys from the guild taller than him and not losing out, holding two glasses to his chest close to his scarf, with unblinking eyes, mouthing loud and clear, "Lucy!"

He joins her in her little space in the crowd, and she doesn't feel so alone anymore.

"What's that?" Lucy points to the two glasses in his arms with a frown.

"Gramps said it was a special wine sent over from old man Warrod. It's supposed to be like a hundred years old, and made with magic. Cana and Gramps and Guildarts were gonna hog it all to themselves, so I brought some for us before they finished it off!"

But Lucy groans, "Natsu, I thought I said not an ounce of alcohol on my lips tonight!"

His mouth twists stubbornly. "This is different! This is some rare stuff right here, Lucy. We gotta try it!"

It does sound awfully tempting, a rare brew even her father Jude would have wanted to purchase for a rich sum back in the day. If her father were here, he might even scold Lucy for turning down such a rarity.

Natsu wrinkles his face in deep (deep for him, average for the average person) thought. "Well, if you really don't want to, then maybe just a sip. Lemme take a swig first and see how strong it is."

Lucy covers the top of his glass before he can bring it all the way to his mouth. "Wait wait, you're right. This might be a once in a lifetime opportunity, and one glass definitely can't hurt."

She takes the other glass and clinks it lightly with his. "Cheers to now!"

Natsu shows her all of his teeth in a big, wide grin. "Cheers!"

They chug it down and it burns Lucy's nostrils, but boy, that wine is pulsing with magic, she can feel it tingling down her system.

"That tastes like fire!"

Fanning her face to chase away that momentary heat, Lucy thinks to herself that if fire tastes like that, then she'd like to try it once, if she could and live to tell the tale. Cheers abrupt from the guild members around them, and Lucy catches the glint in Natsu's eyes. Mira is launching into the first few strums of a familiar song - one of Fairy Tail's favorites.

The magic of the wine boils in Lucy's chest. Her feet feel light, like there's no ground under them. The bass thrums in her chest. Sensational tingles fly through her arms, sparking at her fingertips. She may be screaming, shouting, cheering, or crying from her lips. She can't hear herself. But the way Natsu's mouth mirrors the shapes of her own, the fire in his eyes and the glow in his grin, tell her that it's alright. She's soaring, she's roaring and the guild is roaring with her, chanting to the strum of Mira's guitar and her melody, ghosting over their brows.

Lucy feels dizzy, drunk on the hum of magic, a wild and airy taste like rain and morning dew on her tongue, and for reasons unknown to her, she feels beautiful. Magic sparks from her fingertips and she runs them through her hair, pulling out the pins and ribbons, letting it loose. She can't even feel her hair falling around her shoulders, nothing could pull her down from this magic in her blood, and she wants to coast her palm through the loose strands again, but Natsu stops her. He takes her hand in his, pulls her arm down to their sides, and holds onto her tight. His free arm, he throws up in the air, first two fingers spread up and out, last three fingers folded in, the classic Fairy Tail sign. She follows him, drinks in the fiery magic swirling in his eyes, and they jump, pounding the ground with their feet, feeling nothing below them.

The collective thundering of feet on the dance floor, the frenzied shouts of "Hey Nineteen!" drowning out the chords of Mira's guitar, might sound like a full blown explosion from the outside, but Lucy can't hear any of it. To her, the familiar song is just the right volume, just the right tempo, and just the right pitch. She squeezes Natsu's hand in hers as hard as she can and he returns the action, their little space in the crowd is like a patch of the sky that they took down from up above, they're floating, no chance of coming down, tossed in flight by an old, pure kind of magic in their throat.

By the time the song ends, Lucy is lost, stumbling at the notion of the ground returning to her senses. She leans into Natsu and her hand hurts. She bitterly notices the delicious magic draining away, leaving her cheeks heated.

"Natsu, that was… amazing."

He steadies her with his hands on her shoulders. He licks his lips hungrily, then pushes loose hair out of her eyes, giving her a look that only means one thing. He's fired up.

"We gotta get more of that, before those old geezers swallow it up. Lucy, you're just gonna have to give up on staying sober…"

"I know." Lucy huffs, but even if she were to try, she couldn't sulk. She'd pay anything to feel that delicious magic again. "Forget that. Let's go."

But when Lucy looks down at her hands, her glass is nowhere to be found. Neither is Natsu's. It doesn't take long for the two of them to figure out that the dance floor is a minefield of broken glass and spilled liquids.

Thanks to the wonders of Mira's song, Cana and Guildarts are still catching their bearings on the dancefloor; Master Makarov is the only obstacle in Natsu and Lucy's way. The plan is for Lucy to distract Master, lure him away from his permanent place atop the ornate cask, and distract him, while Natsu sneaks more of the magical wine for the two of them.

Lucy lets loose her mediocre acting on the guild master, and thankfully, he's drunk enough and prone enough to a young girl's puppy dog eyes to jump off the cask to help Lucy retrieve a "hair pin" she lost somewhere in the crowd. Natsu snatches the champagne bottle their friends had opened just a song ago, pours the rest of the contents into Gray's glass, and ignores the ice wizard's challenges to a game of strip poker. Natsu fills the champagne bottle up to the brim with the magic wine while Lucy watches from the corner of her eye, accepting a broken cat hairpin that isn't hers from Master Makarov with thanks. In a few moments, they meet at their rendezvous spot - Gray and Juvia's kissing corner.

Except, it's surprisingly hard to find the peace and quiet needed to properly enjoy a bottle of magic wine between two people when Gray is adamant about roasting Natsu in poker, Erza is yelling about how the hell do Gray and Juvia expect to play strip poker when they have nothing to strip, Cana is back to chirping Lucy's name with her arms full of beers from all over the land, and Elfman and Gajeel kick off an impromptu break dance battle for the "Best man in Fairy Tail".

Lucy is surprised to find that Natsu Dragneel, the hothead, isn't about to fall prey to any of the above challenges. Instead, he pulls Lucy into the shadows by a hand, leading her on tip toes through darkness and streamers. Lucy hums in excitement when they arrive in front of a ladder, tucked away in the very back of the guild and leading up into a dark hole up above.

"Lucy, take this and wait for me. I'm gonna go snatch some food," Natsu folds the champagne bottle in Lucy's fingers.

She rolls her eyes but nods, starting the climb up, partly glad she won't have to worry about Natsu getting a full view of what's under her dress. She sighs and mumbles under her breath, "You'd better not get held up, Natsu Dragneel."


	3. Chapter 3

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving, if you celebrated!

* * *

The late night breeze is like silk caressing her cheeks, her shoulders, and her loose hair, and Lucy kicks off her shoes before settling down, folding her legs in her arms before peering up at the infinity of stars and sky above.

She's humming "Hey Nineteen" quietly to herself until she picks up footsteps from the ladder. She'd left the little hatch door open, but instead of a spiky head of pink hair poking up, Lucy finds a big, teetering bowl of fruit and crackers.

"Lucy, help me!"

Lucy steps off of the thick, furry blanket Virgo had given her and yelps at the cold roof tiles against her bare feet. She picks up the bowl from Natsu's head, her lips turning up when the boy flashes his pointed teeth at her in thanks.

"What's that in your shirt?" Lucy sets the bowl down on the blanket and points to the bump straining the white fabric.

Natsu unbuttons the last three of his buttons from the bottom to pull out a beer mug, with the end of a silver utensil sticking out on top. He hands it to Lucy with a twinkle in his eye, and Lucy is staring at a mug full of cake, fluffy white icing and leaf petals squished to the brim. Natsu uses a few of his fingers to wipe off smudges of icing from his stomach.

From the open hatch door, a voice laden with wrath and fury shouts, "WHO CUT THE CAKE WITHOUT PERMISSION?!"

Natsu and Lucy grimace, exchange glances, and decide to close the hatch door quietly, but firmly.

Still, Lucy hums contently after a bite of the cake, smug that she gets to be the first one to taste it for once. Natsu brings an index finger up to his lips with large eyes, then whispers, "If Erza catches us up here, we're dead."

She nods and darts back to the square of blanket, laid out just a few feet away from the outer railing looking over the dim, evening lights of Magnolia. "Where'd you get the blanket?" Natsu mumbles while kicking off his dress shoes, then his black socks. "Virgo gave it to me."

Natsu plops down, legs crossed, and snatches the fork inches away from Lucy's mouth, popping what was supposed to be Lucy's second bite of cake past his own jagged teeth. "You know, I think I saw Loke down there, break dancin'."

Lucy rolls her eyes and attempts without success to take the fork back, paying the price by losing the mug in her hands, too. She pouts while Natsu scoops up an amount that should not have fit on the tiny fork, filling his mouth to the brim. The pout melts away in the next moment, though, when Natsu scrapes up another, smaller mouthful, and feeds it to her.

"Lucy, the wine!"

"The… wine!" Lucy mumbles between chews and reaches for the bottle, holding it up above her head triumphantly. "The magic wine is ours!"

While Natsu chatters incoherently with excitement, Lucy takes a small sip first. "One sip for me…" She hands the bottle to him and he mimics her movements. "One sip for you…"

Natsu's expressive howl drowns out Lucy's faint whisper of "Another sip for me…", and with each brisk fan of her flushed cheeks, magic - thick, rich, and brimming with life - courses through her blood. Blinking away the heat on her tongue, Lucy looks up and laughs. "Natsu, your ears are on fire!"

She lets the laughter stream from her lips freely, basking in the sparks that send her head and her hairs around her swimming. There's smoke curling up from the corners of his mouth too, and Lucy clutches her stomach as the laughter pours out of her.

"Look, Lucy! Your hair is glowing! And… so are your keys!"

Lucy starts, and the moment her hand shoots to her side where her keys are, a white light flashes before them. Plue the dog shoots out with the first ray, followed by Capricorn, Taurus, Sagittarius, a Lucy part two which has to be Gemini, and of course, Virgo.

"What are you all doing here?!"

Lucy leaps out of the way as Lucy part two throws herself onto the blanket, diving for the mug of cake. She then has to shy away from a squirming Taurus crooning that it was the right choice to vote for the Capricorn star dress on her right, which leaves her shying away from a whip-yielding Virgo asking for punishment to her left, stumbling onto cold roof tiles before bumping into Sagittarius and knocking a delicate teacup out of his hand. The cup shatters at Lucy's feet, hands pull her away and back onto the fuzzy blanket, and Capricorn bemoans the loss of a supposedly expensive piece of china from the second century.

A high-pitched voice half mimicking Lucy's and half taunting asks, "What does that magic wine taste like?", another rough voice much closer to her ear retorts that the wine isn't for sharing, and Lucy raises her hands up to check that her fingers aren't being electrocuted, because it sure as hell feels like they are. But not in a painful way; it's in a ticklish, floating way that makes her thoughts cloudy, or the cloudiness might be from too many voices near and far, talking to her at once, and with something between a sigh and a song, Lucy declares, "I'm sorry, all of you, but please go back. I can't hear myself think."

She thinks she's closing all of the gates with graceful motions of her hands, and that it only looks like she's swatting flies away to her hazy eyes because the magic is playing tricks on her. She's alone with Natsu on the blanket again so she says, "Forced gate closure, Natsu."

He dodges her fly swat with a little duck. "What're you trying to close my gate for?" But he's grinning, raising his right arm so that his palm is facing her. Lucy squints at it, pointing.

"And what's that for?"

"A high five!" He chuckles. "You just summoned like, six spirits at once, you monster!"

A smile tugs at Lucy's lips and she jumps, aiming her right hand for Natsu's open palm but missing, her legs tangling with the flowy fabric of her dress.

"Whoa there," Natsu grabs her arms and sits her down. "So we're not doing that again tonight."

Lucy's fingers seek out the wine bottle and wrap tightly around it, and she squeezes her eyes shut as she throws back one more little sip, crooning in delight. It's like bathing in a steaming shower of gold and bliss, and she snaps her eyes open again to ask, "Is my hair still glowing?" while handing Natsu the bottle.

He takes a lengthy swig that makes Lucy huff out of disapproval. "No, not anymore."

"Your ears aren't either, but now your nose is."

Natsu goes cross eyed and starts batting at his nose.

"There is one spirit we could use right about now, though… Good thing it's a Friday…"

Lucy slips out Lyra's key and gives it a flick, and the lyre spirit appears with her elegant instrument, a content smile on her face. The spirit shoots Lucy a thumbs up for summoning her in a quiet place, with a nice view, on the correct day of the month. When Lucy asks politely, Lyra ripples into a light, melodic tune, not too fast or energetic, but not too slow and drowsy.

Having successfully transferred the little flame from his nose to his eyebrows, Natsu sheds his blazer and pads barefoot onto the roof.

"Look, Lucy! I betcha I could beat all those dumb guys in a break dance battle!"

Lucy watches with skepticism as Natsu tiptoes out to the center of the rooftop, arms pointed out behind him, doing the perfect impersonation of an ostrich on drugs. Trying to twirl in a circle on his stiff, pointed toes does nothing but cause mini balls of flame to crackle and pop where his toes meet the ground in a rickety, robotic beat. The guy swings his legs front and back, to and fro, his flaming eyebrows scrunched in some semblance of concentration, arms forming a diamond above his head, and every jerk and flail makes Lucy laugh harder, louder, uglier, until she's a sputtering mess on the blanket.

"Quit laughing at my moves, Lucy!"

She wipes away another sip of wine from her lower lip. "Please don't tell me you're trying to do ballet."

"We learned a little bit from the theater troupe in Onibus, remember?"

"Yes, until you made that nice practice room with the mirrors explode. I still have a scar from one of the mirror shards cutting me, right here…" Lucy fingers the back of her neck, searching for the spot.

"Lemme see." But instead of examining Lucy's neck while she holds her hair away, Natsu pulls her by the arm and leads her in that giddy dance of his, and she has no choice but to follow, giggles playing on her tongue.

She ignores the cold tiles at her feet and follows each of Natsu's strange, stiff-legged pirouettes. Every single one of their kicks come accented with sudden, pained yelps: the results of trying to lift up inflexible legs gracefully up in the air, and failing. Lucy frowns, tries again, and almost falls on her butt, and even though it feels like only yesterday that her young and healthy limbs could split in every which way 180 degrees, turns out she's not that innocent, youthful little girl anymore.

So she gives up, settles for rubbing the pained muscles of her poor thighs, but her friend just won't let her have her bittersweet moment of time flown too fast and ignorant, golden days gone to the wind. His fingers brush up against hers from under her, electricity swims before her eyes, and they go twirling, round and round, so fast Lucy can't keep up.

But she thinks it's okay, and hopes Natsu can feel the thunder and the magic bubbling in her arms and legs and fingertips too, and the delicate sound of the reverie grows and grows until she's spinning on a cloud, a shared cloud only she and Natsu know about. It may be his euphoric hollers, or the intricate music, or the pulse in Lucy's ears that drowns out Lyra's sudden, "Watch out, you two!"

Natsu's holler turns into a screech. Lucy joins in on the squeal and manages to really crash land on her butt so hard, her bones will have bruises tomorrow. Her dragon slayer friend rolls away in a trail of fire, clutching his right foot.

"Ugh, why didn't Sagittarius pick up his broken china?!" Lucy winces as she brushes away the tiniest pieces of glass fragments from her left sole, carefully. Lyra stops her music. With a glance, Lucy can tell the spirit is torn between coming to check up on Lucy's injuries, or just zapping back to the spirit world and calling it a night.

"Lucy, I'm bleeding!" Natsu calls shrilly.

"So am I!" She didn't mean to snap back so hard, but it just happens that way.

Lucy's frantic scooting on her butt and her right heel toward the blanket is rudely interrupted as Virgo lands on Lucy's stomach, knocking the air out of her.

"Princess, please use these mini, flesh colored pieces of tape to gag and punish me."

Lucy accepts the bandaids and tissues from Virgo with narrowed eyes, then thanks both of her spirits, dismissing them. She thinks she'd like to go the rest of the night without summoning, or airway disturbing visits for that matter, from her spirit friends.

"Come over here Natsu, Virgo brought us bandaids."

While Lucy wipes blood away and patches up her own foot first, Natsu waits quietly beside her, his bloody foot up in the air obediently. He suppresses an odd mixture of a snort and a cry once she puts his foot on her knee to begin dabbing his blood off.

"Okay, that kinda tickles," he says with a pout, and Lucy has to deal with a squirmy leg for the entirety of the bandaging job.

"I suppose I should try to clean those glass pieces up before we stumble over there again…" Lucy makes to get up, but Natsu stops her.

"Wait, I got this!" He takes a breath of air, then lets loose a thin stream of flame in the direction of the hazard zone. With his forehead scrunched, he maintains the stream until each of the little glass pieces catch on fire, a little display of blazing, smokey patterns on the tiles.

He turns to her with bright eyes and she smiles. "Pretty."

They watch the flames dancing from their square of blanket, passing sips of wine back and forth and munching on crackers. They let the magic of the wine, bursting with life and a light of its own, hum over their skin and breaths.

Until a boom shakes the guild, tremors crawling up through the rooftop tiles, over the blanket, and into their legs. "What was that?" Lucy meets Natsu's eyes with alarm.

He dashes over to the hatch leading down into the building, pulling it open slowly. Another crash loud enough to shake the guild, followed by thunderous cries of warrior women and feet shuffling. Natsu takes a whiff of the air from the light dimly shining in his face, covers his nose, and shuts the hatch again promptly.

"Phew, reeks of demon magic and booze down there."

"You mean… Mira san?"

Natsu nods, taking up his flattened spot on the blanket. They make out a deep, muffled cry having something to do with the girls in the guild all being a "man," and Lucy can't hold back a chuckle in her throat.

Then they talk, in cursive with the taste of magic on their tongues, about all kinds of things. Like how Elfman may have to control his habit of calling everything a "man" a bit, how lonely Mira san and Lisanna might feel without their brother around, and Natsu cuts in with an eyeroll because it's not like they're moving to a different country, and the guild will always be the guild. But Lucy isn't really sure, everything just feels so uncertain and they're not kids anymore, even if all Natsu's interested in is grapes and clementines and handing her a half of one he just peeled before tossing his own half down his throat in a single swallow. They talk, about all kinds of things meant to mask Lucy's little patch of loneliness haphazardly stitched on her thumping heart.

Natsu throws a grape at her and it bounces off of her forehead. "Quit getting sappy with all your nonsense about our friends 'changing'. You should've seen Erza down there polishing that cake cutting knife. The only thing that's changed about her is the number of scary, pointy things hidden up her sleeves!"

Lucy steals a few grapes from his hands and narrows her eyes, mumbling a half-hearted comeback about how the great Natsu Dragneel is afraid of change, and his fiery retort is a muffled mess with too many grapes to make out the words coherently. She guesses it to be something along the lines of he "changes every jingle bell day" and "trains hard to get younger every jingle day."

She sighs and bounces grapes off the spiky head, because it's her who's afraid of the creeping changes, not him. Still, reluctantly and with a tinge of guilt, she says to him, "Just don't get too disappointed if Elfman and Gajeel don't want to pick fights with you as often, okay?"

Natsu's eyes gleam orange as he takes an angry swig of wine. Her own tongue jolts with a thrilling wave of energy as she places the bottle, now almost empty, gently on the blanket. She draws her legs up to her chest when a cold night breeze passes by. Even when facing away, head tilted back toward the sky, Natsu is good at catching her little shiver, putting down his new clementine to drape his discarded blazer across her shoulders.

Lucy thanks him and wriggles her toes, being reminded of the little sting in her left foot. A few more grapes bound off of her knees. "Lucy, let's stop talking about boring stuff and stop making that droopy face."

He's threatening to flick a flaming grape at her with his thumb, and Lucy lets go another weak breath. "You're… not the one afraid of change, I am. Or at least, of being left behind because I'm too slow." She hides her face between her knees and her chest, not because she's embarrassed, but because she's taking cover from the flaming grape about to fly into her hair.

And when Natsu's hand thumps the top of her head, patting albeit a little hard, Lucy starts. "But I like that about you." His teeth gleam in the moonlight, his grin wide, with the sweet scent of fruit tinged in his words. Through half lidded eyes, she wonders randomly how strong the smell of fruit might be to him right now with the magic swimming around them and all, which is when he says, "You always stay the same. You're always just, Lucy."

For some reason, the stubborn girl inside her has to argue with him about how much she's changed too, and does he seriously want her to show him again exactly how many spirits she can summon? Because that little fiasco with Taurus and Gemini and the guys was just a warm up. But he surprises her when he doesn't fire back a snarky comment in return, and the rebellious side of her fizzles away like a candlelight in the breeze.

"I know you've gotten a lot stronger, silly! But even when you get stronger and stronger, you smell the same, you act the same, you'll be the same old Lucy to me. That's why you're the best!"

Her friend's grin has a strange magic of waking up the dormant brain waves meant for tossing her worries to wind, and just like that, she accepts the changes, accepts his gutsy way of looking up and looking forward into the night, right along with another peeled half of a clementine. They exchange the last few sips of the wine that lights Lucy's body on fire, and with a belch, Natsu tells her that the very last sip should be for her. When her fingers brush against his with the passing of the bottle, they feel more ablaze than ever. Draining the last of the liquid opens her eyes to the brilliant, physical glow of magic surrounding her and her partner; it's a cooler vibrance than Natsu's flames and a purer glint than Jellal's star magic. Power struggles to break free from Lucy's side where her keys rest against her, but she channels it elsewhere, more in the center of her body. She rises on her knees and moves until she's kneeling just in front of Natsu.

She whispers so softly, it's difficult for her ears to pick up her own sound. "Don't tell anyone I said this, especially Happy… But I think you're the best too, Natsu."

Strangely, he blushes, or it might be that sneaky glow of the wine's magic. Any minute now, Lucy's expecting his cheeks to catch in dancing, orange flames, and she blinks as she raises her face up to his, pressing her lips on the very tip of his nose.


	4. Chapter 4

Hello, and Happy New Year!

I wasn't sure if I'd made it clear enough when I first started the story, but... this story is NaLu. So I've added that little label in the description.

* * *

The little spot on the tip of Natsu's nose where Lucy just touched her lips lights up in a delicate, pinkish flame. Watching the pink hues dance, Lucy feels that same hue of pink flushing her whole face, inching down her neck. It's not important that she might be feverish from the magic of a hundred year old wine, or not. The only thing important to her in the moment is the held breath of space between her anxious gaze, and his blinking eyes, and in the bazillion little blinks her friend gives her, Lucy is afraid to blink herself. Like once she blinks and opens up her eyes again, she might not recognize him, or her, for that matter.

She opens her mouth to say something, anything, but she can't find the sound, until a flash of something forces her to finally blink the haze away.

The flash is magic - the magic of Natsu's smile taking physical form, to the sweet call of the shimmering, gold force that is the living, magic wine. It's a powerful rush of gold magic and pink fire, infesting Lucy's vision even as she tries to stay focussed on her friend's features. Smile so wide his chin all but disappears, he sets himself on that sputtering trail of exhilaration and joy, the thing Natsu loves to do as much as he loves to set himself on fire.

"You know, Lucy, if you're the best, and I'm the best, then that makes us, together… the best."

The exhilaration rears and catches in the gleam of his eyes, boring into her with the monstrous strength of a dragon. Under that gaze, any semblance of doubt and insecurity is forbidden, because he's strong enough to hold down any of those heavy weights with his arms and fists so she can stand and remain standing, by his side. Up, she stands, releasing a troublesome gust of magic from her shoulders with a huff - a curl of the magic dusted in powdery yellow and blue. It stirs theirs hairs and runs away into the sky, disturbing the shimmering of the stars just for a small second. She holds out her right hand for him and he clasps it, so that he's up and facing her again.

"Right?" He asks, reaching out and running his fingers through her loose hair.

She nods into his fingers, and it feels just like pure drops of magic skitter and fall from her head, into his palm. He threads the strands and the curls of yellow and blue, then rubs a few of his fingers together with her blonde threads. A little spark of white lightning pops at them from where her hairs meet his fingertips. Lucy gasps, Natsu stutters, and they exchange delighted glances, before checking to make sure the ends of Lucy's hair aren't burnt.

Still, she lightly swats his hand away when he tries to reach into her hair again, just to be safe and just because she can. She narrows her eyes at him a little, mischief playing on her tongue as she challenges him.

"Maybe I agree that we're both the best. But then how come we need Erza and Gray and Wendy on our team to make us the strongest team in Fairy Tail?"

He accepts the challenge with a roar in his gaze. "Lucy, obviously, we _are_ Fairy Tail's strongest team. You, me, and Happy. I swear it!" He takes their right hands, still clasped, and nudges it against his chest.

Delicate, beautiful flames bloom along the ridges of his forearm, racing up his and her wrists and alighting at their joined hands, and Lucy is so mesmerized by the dance of the pinkish flames swaying with the dust of yellows and blues, that she forgets to react.

Too late, she realizes that her hand is on fire and pulls it back with a start, but it doesn't burn. She and Natsu watch as the pale flame slowly, gradually dies out from her fingers, disappearing into the night sky. The trails of pink on Natsu's arm fade away shortly after.

And then they laugh, boisterous and crazy, their fingers finding each other's and intertwining, loose, then tight, then loose again. Lucy makes fun of the smoke drifting out from Natsu's ears and nostrils, Natsu argues that it happened to Igneel all the time, and then Lucy teeters because something like a hard shove in her hip where her keys are makes one ankle knock into the other. As she's concentrating to keep the magic at her hips in check, she bumps her shoulder on the inside of Natsu's outstretched arm, and that's when it all drains out of her.

The wine's magic drains from her body, vanishing into the stars and the night. A glance up tells her that it's happening to Natsu, too. He scrunches his nose, disappointment passing in his eyes. They fall still and silent, just a few of their last couple fingers left clinging on.

The loss of the magic is quickly replaced by an uncomfortable little signal in Lucy's gut. She blurts it out the same time Natsu does, their voices flat and void of composure.

"I need to use the ladies' room."

"I need to use the toilet."

That does them in again. This time, it might not be the delicious magic lifting their spirits, but they still laugh silly, at each other and all the dumb things they did. The silly laughs never leave their breaths as they gather what of their mess they can in their arms. The climb down the ladder chute is slightly woozy, but feeling Fairy Tail floors under her feet again livens Lucy. She starts on a content little skip to the restrooms, but finds herself yanked back, harsh and sudden, a dragon's strength whisking the floor from under her.

"Lucy, shh."

Natsu presses her back into his chest, a hand over her mouth as they back away into a tiny, dark nook behind a huge statue of a half man, half goat. He points out into the main floor and Lucy gently pulls his hand away, to let out a quick, shaken breath. He mouths behind her, "We do not want to get into that mess right now."

Swallowing, Lucy nods as her answer. From what they can see of the main hall, most of Fairy Tail is out for the night. Bodies strewn about tables, chairs, floors, and cushions, snoring away the booze and buzz. The few members still left for the count, are engaged in a game in the center of the hall, standing in a wide circle and focussed on a tin cup filled with wooden sticks. Memories of past traumas suffered from this particular game make Lucy visibly tremble, and Natsu warily pulls his blazer tighter around her.

They try to form some sort of plan that mostly involves Natsu pulling his scarf over his mouth and nose, declaring something about the art of the ninja, and then discarding their shoes by the feet of the half man, half goat statue.

Natsu insists on going first and Lucy would rather not go out there except for the fact that she really has to go to ladies' room, so she watches with a tick in her chin while Natsu pads down the wood in the darkest, most shadowed patches of the corridor. He's doing some sort of dance and it is far from ninja-like. Much closer to Vijeeter-like.

They do their best to avoid the wider open areas of the guild. Sneaking behind thick curtains of pink, green, and yellow streamers, stone and marble statues, and the occasional bunch of Fairy Tail comrades piled on top of one another like sandwiches.

One moment, Lucy is tiptoeing triumphantly past a sleeping mound of Freed and Bickslow, who are surrounded by empty beer casks with faces painted on them. The paint is still fresh, smearing on Lucy's left elbow. The next moment, she and Natsu hold onto each other for dear life, huddled in a miniature spot of shade created by Elfman's armpit. The man sleeps on his side, one hand resting over a red blanket next to him. Mira and Evergreen occupy the warm underside of the red blanket, and Natsu and Lucy? They huddle in the darkest nook of Elfman, right below the feet of the sisters-in-law-to-be.

Bearing the sleepy, bruising kicks of the two sisters is just something Natsu and Lucy have to withstand, because Erza just drew the guild master stick for the sixth time in a row, and Gray, Juvia, Gajeel, Levy, Lisanna, Loki, and even Jellal for goodness sake, are all crying on their hands and knees. Lucy isn't sure how many of them are nude because she happened to be too busy hiding and forcing Natsu to keep his head low to see for sure, but she guesses, the lot of them are.

"I truly am a master at this game, if I do say so myself," Erza says.

A bit of shuffling on the floors, a few wine glasses rolling around, and Jellal, muttering, "Erza, I trust and believe in you with everything that I am, but… are you sure you're not… cheating?"

Erza grunts, Loki wails in pain, feet scurry around, and Gajeel breathes, "You've done it now, ring boy."

The guild master orders number 5 (an "Eh?", Juvia) to carry number 2 ("Huuh?", Lisanna), number 6 (a buttery sigh, Loki) to carry number 3 (nervous laughing, Levy), number 7 (silence) to carry number 4 (low tsk, Gajeel), and number 1 (bitter cursing, Gray) to carry Erza herself, outside, so they can run thirty laps around the guild building.

Lucy sighs long and stiff a few minutes later, the guild's main floor now filled with only peace, quiet, and sleeping bodies. She and Natsu creep out of Elfman's armpit nook slowly, straightening up cramped muscles, and walk softly the rest of the way to the guild's restrooms.

Just in case it takes an absurd spirit like Loki or a former wizard saint like Jellal less than five minutes to run thirty laps around the guild's building, Lucy hurries with her toilet business. Faint images of her hair glowing in yellow and blue light, and weird parts of Natsu's face lit up in a pinkish flame, play in front of her eyes as she meets Natsu in the corridor.

"What a relief! And whaddaya know, Lucy, that stick game is kinda funny when you're not being forced to play it with Erza."

"The last time we played, you ordered me to have a wrestling match with you! Those bruises lasted for weeks, Natsu!"

He snatches one of her arms and pokes her with a leer. "That's why you need more muscle on ya! Build up a strong layer of steel!"

Lucy lunges for Natsu's chest and he retreats back a few steps. "On yeah? You want to test and see how much Lucy-pinching your 'layer of steel' can take before it turns black and blue?"

He's so annoyingly good at dodging Lucy's grabs for his arms and legs, and Lucy is panting with exertion. "But Lucy, enemies don't pinch!"

"If you thought I was your friend, you thought wrong! I'm your worst nightmare!" She presses forward without giving up and is rewarded with a solid, multi-fingered pinch of Natsu's bicep. He cries for forgiveness and Lucy feels merciful tonight, so she simply declares she'd like some water from the kitchen and stalks off nonchalantly.

The kitchen is surprisingly untouched by the mess outside in the halls. Lucy finds a beverage cooler labeled "water" and finds it stocked full with clear bottles. She takes one, unscrews the lid, takes a chilling sip, turning on her heels as she swallows. Then, she spews the liquid from her lips in a sprinkle explosion, in her partner's face, neck, and chest.

"That is so, not water!"

"Lucy, what the heck!"

Lucy swipes her mouth with the back of her hand, frowning at the harsh sting of alcohol burning her throat. "I'm sorry Natsu… but somebody's gone and filled up this cooler with alcohol instead of water…"

He takes a sip for himself. "Nope, that's not water alright." He tests out another bottle from the same cooler, frowning. "Which moron put alcohol in the water cooler?"

Lucy sighs and mutters that it might have been intentional as a joke, before turning away to look for some real water. She would have loved to try the walk-in cooler on the other side of the kitchen, but she can't, because a dragon is grabbing her and lugging her somewhere and she's too surprised to even resist.

The next moment, Natsu has jumped into a large keg with Lucy in tow, shutting the lid over their heads. While she's getting used to the darkness, she feels Natsu's finger over her mouth. "Shh. Someone's coming." His breath tickles her cheek.

"But why do we have to hide? We're in our guild." Lucy blinks hard, trying to decide if the dark mound she's whispering to is Natsu's head or his knee.

"Oh, well I thought it might be Erza or Gajeel, so I reacted on impulse. But I guess we don't…"

She grasps him hard before he can get up and blow their cover. "No! You're right! I'd rather a barrel over Erza right now."

Sighing, Lucy tries to adjust her scrunched up legs in the cramped barrel, and her toes dip into a little puddle of what must be leftover beer clinging to the bottom of the keg. With a start, Lucy scoots away from the puddle, cramming herself into Natsu's side.

Her eyes have adjusted a little better now and she can make out his face, concentrating on sounds from outside the kitchen only he can hear. Lucy knocks her knee into Natsu's leg and her elbow into the rounded wall of the barrel, and with an even softer "Shh", he puts an arm around her, pulling her tight to his side.

"I think it's Laxus and Cana," he says, the words more of a feeling against Lucy's ear, pressed into his chest, than a sound.

Footsteps enter the kitchen, some heavy, some light. Shuffling, sounds of a bottle cap being opened, liquid pouring. Glasses clanking. Lucy trying as hard as she can to keep her breathing slow, even, unnoticeable. Natsu's chest moving up and down, slowly, under her ear and her palm.

"I don't even wanna know how many bottles of rare alcohol you have stored around here." Laxus sounds relaxed, his tone low and almost mischievous. It's rare to hear him speaking so comfortably.

"Good. And don't touch this one either, I'm saving it for Lucy. Where'd she run off to, anyway? I haven't had a chance to give her one decent drink!" Cana's words are slightly slurred, but the strength in her voice says she still has plenty of fuel in her tank. They pour, clank, and drink again.

"Lucy's fun to tease, huh?"

"The best! But I think she'll really like this one. It's really made of some strong magic, isn't it? You almost electrocuted me back there!"

"You bought out those bikini ladies first."

"See? Can you imagine what it'll do to Lucy! Maybe it'll even bring out that giant mustache man!" Cana laughs boisterously, which thankfully poses as the only cover to Natsu's unconfined snicker. Lucy shoves her hand over his mouth, feeling red rising in her face.

"The whole magic wine business is a little too unpredictable for me. I'll stick with the regular ol' sake."

They drink again, and Cana's giddy voice melts away Lucy's embarrassment. "Hey now, this is no regular ol' sake! I paid good money for this special bottle! It's from the capital, you can see how fancy the packaging is…"

The two chat longer than expected, and both Natsu and Lucy can't help but fidget here and there, squished against each other inside the dark, stuffy keg. Lucy's throat is burning for some much needed water. Not to mention, she feels bad for eavesdropping on Laxus and Cana's private conversation.

"Oh man, that's the last of that bottle already. What are you gonna do now, Laxus? It's pretty late… maybe I need to go home and get some shut eye. Been a long day."

"Maybe you ought to take Erza with ya… Before those kids start, you know, combat training this late at night, and wake up the whole town."

"Should I really steal a woman away from her fiancé on such an important evening?"

"It's… four in the morning. If they wanted to go off in private, they should've done so hours ago."

"I worry about those kids, Laxus… are they really even ready to get married?"

"Best to just leave 'em be."

"And what about you? When are you gonna settle down?"

The question hangs in the air, heavier than any other topic exchanged between the two this entire time. Lucy finds she's holding her breath, while Natsu's busy passing time, juggling three tiny fire balls in one hand.

In the quiet, the sound of Laxus downing his last glass has a resounding effect. Like some sort of bell, bringing the private conversation to an end.

"On second thought, hurry up and finish that. You and I are gonna go chase those kids home, and then I'm gonna go put gramps to bed. That man is too old for guild sleepovers."

Cana obliges, and boy is Lucy glad to hear those two get ready to leave.

"Guess I'll have to hide this magic wine and give it to Lucy some other day…" Cana mumbles, but Laxus cuts in. "Put it in that first cabinet by the counter. In case a couple of eavesdropping bugs decide to steal it."

"Huh? That's not even a good hiding place, Laxus…"

"Just come on, Cana. It'll find its owner sooner than you think."

And even after they leave, Natsu waits another forever to finally pop open the stuffy barrel lid. He jumps out, helps Lucy climb out, and they stretch like they've been confined in there for days. Then, Lucy goes and fishes out the wine, exactly where Laxus told Cana to put it.

"Natsu, did… Laxus know we were in there?" She asks, and Natsu puffs out his cheeks.

"Damn dragon slayers and their noses…"

After an eternity, and accidentally discovering a couple of Cana's hidden bottles, Lucy manages to quench her thirst. The water soothes every single one of her uncomfortable muscles, the ones she had to keep folded up inside that dumb barrel. Being stuck with Natsu in a barrel? That sure brought back old memories.

They mingle in the kitchen a while longer so Natsu can dig up a not-so-light snack. Except he takes too long, because someone decides to shut off the lights in the entire guild.

"Laxus really must have sent the others home, Natsu… maybe we should head back too."

When she turns around, he's gotten ahold of a few big, fat, turkey legs. He's balancing his tray of turkey legs dangerously in one hand, twirling two wine glasses with the other.

"Not yet, Lucy! Let's go upstairs for another round!"

She can't bring herself to say no to that big smile of his. She's swept up in his waves, wondering just what he's so happy about, and they return to their blanket on the rooftop of the guild safely, without running into any dangerous Erzas.

Thank goodness Natsu is sensible enough for a few seconds to bring wine glasses this time, and Lucy tells herself as she pours to thank Cana later for saving the magic wine for her. Maybe next time, she'll let Cana get away with a few of her antics to get Lucy drunk.

Before they click their wine glasses, Lucy can't help herself from asking Natsu, "Since when did you like drinking so much, Natsu? Or is this so you can get your greedy hands on the last of the magic wine that Cana saved for me? For me only?"

The way his expression softens, wasn't quite the reaction Lucy was expecting. He scratches his neck, the slightest hint of bashfulness in his smile. "You've felt this feeling before, right Lucy? That feeling of not wanting a day to end, because it's such a happy and fun day… Today is just one of those days."

Even though Lucy didn't know Natsu felt those kinds of feelings, she understands nonetheless. Nodding, she leads a small, whispered, "Cheers." The magic wine tastes infinitely better than she remembers it. Simply describing it as the taste of fire, isn't enough anymore. Maybe it's magic, and so it changes its taste depending on who, when, where… Because right now, the magic warming up her throat and hands and feet, just might be the taste of happiness itself.

It's hard to tell if Lucy and Natsu are the ones lost to the indescribable magic of the wine, or if the magic becomes lost in the jumble of their laughs; of Natsu's loud and obnoxious eating; and of the wonder brought back by the glowing gold sprinkle of light in Lucy's hair, the dancing pink flames along Natsu's body, and the two magics, merging together, painting colors of warmth and giddiness around them in the night sky.

Lucy loses track of how many glasses she may have had tonight. Natsu pats his stomach contently, setting the tray of bones aside. They finish Cana's bottle of magic wine, and end up lying on their backs, side by side, staring up at the darkness above them. No, Lucy doesn't want this night to end, either. She doesn't want to wrestle with the thoughts of her friends, maturing and moving on, leaving her and Natsu behind. And maybe he saw this in her, he could tell, even before she could. That's why he brought them here, away from the chaos, somewhere safe.

"Lucy?"

"Hmm?"

"I wanna go on a job."

She scrambles up, looking down at him in bewilderment. "Now?!"

He laughs, pulls her down again. "Tomorrow. First thing in the morning. Err… okay maybe more like afternoon."

Lucy doesn't like where this is going but she lays on her side, propping her head up with an elbow, staring at her partner as if that could stop him and his absurd ideas.

"Let's get away from here for a while. On a long job. You, me, and Happy. We'll go to faraway places, to look for Aquarius's key. You haven't been able to travel very far yet, you know? So this time, we'll try places we've never been before."

There's fire in his eyes, in his curved lips too, and Lucy sighs, because he shouldn't be saying such things.

"That's not fair, Natsu. We made a deal. You kept up your end of the deal, so the next job we go on is supposed to be your choice."

"This is my choice!"

"But it's for me! You shouldn't have to worry about looking for Aquarius's key."

She starts when he flips to his side, mirroring her. He pulls her cheek with a pinch and it hurts, damn him and his strength.

"It's what I want. I'm not letting you go have all the fun in the world searching for Aquarius's key by yourself."

"But what about all the weddings? The guild is going to be super busy…"

"Exactly! Elfman, Erza, Gajeel, Levy, Jellal, Evergreen, and everyone else. They're all gonna be busy for… who knows how many months! And if we stay, we'll get swept up trying to help, and you'll miss your chance to go do what you need to do. We have to go now. We have to go, and trust the others in the guild. They'll be fine without us, and you know it."

Lucy pouts, because since when was Natsu so good at making a convincing argument? Did magic wine make people smarter?

While she's quiet, he goes on reaching for a few strands of her hair, because some of them are still glowing faintly.

"You really want to go look for Aquarius's key together? It could be boring, and frustrating, and really difficult…"

"If I get bored, I'll just tease ya!"

"And what if we get back, and everyone in the guild's changed so much we won't even fit in anymore…"

He stops twirling her hair at that, thinking. He looks at her, without as much as a blink, so still and unmoving that Lucy starts wondering if he fell asleep trying to think too hard.

Until he lets her strand of hair go, and pats the top of her head. "You won't change. Neither will I. And Happy will never change, we can count on that. As long as we're together, we can face the guild even if it decides to change. Don't you think so?"

His gaze never wavers, reading her inside and out. He's fired up, she can make that much out in the glitter of his eyes clear as day, and his innate ability to kindle a similar kind of fire in her heart - it has to be some kind of secret dragon slayer art he never told her about. It creeps in, the fire, into the very corners of herself. She wants to say everything, but isn't sure of how to say anything, until it almost hurts, how thankful she is to have him.

"Someday…" Lucy manages, her voice faint. "Someday, I'll repay you for everything you do for me, Natsu. Someday."

He smirks, then, edging closer, bobbing his forehead into hers, making her flinch.

"What do you mean, repay me? You mean… like for all the times I made you embarrassed? Because if that's what you're talking about, then… that's a lot of times. I don't know if you'll be able to do it all in one lifetime."

That does it, that goofy smirk on his face is more than enough to tinge the fire inside her in a shade completely different than what it was just moments before. She lunges at him, grabbing for his cheeks, and he rolls away, looking for an opening. She jabs him in the side and goes for the bottom of his bare feet, and the tickle attack works for a few triumphant minutes. Until he reciprocates with his own tickle attack, to her stomach, because that just had to be her stupid weak spot. She sort of falls back so that her spine crushes his face, but she's not sorry, and they start rolling back the other way. The rooftop floors are too cold for this and Lucy is so glad to be back on top of their blanket, no matter how thin it is.

She sits up, he's ginning like the devil, planning his next attack, and she needs to call truce for now. "Wait, Natsu. I say yes."

"Yes?"

"We'll leave tomorrow, to search for Aquarius's key."

"Yes!" Natsu stretches out in a big X shape, taking up too much of the blanket. He looks way too smug for his own good, but saves himself from another pinch to his cheek with a big yawn.

The yawn is contagious, and Lucy finds herself lying back down beside him. Pulling one of his arms down to use as a pillow. Too hard for a pillow, really.

"Just be warned, I won't tolerate any whining about transportation."

His expression stiffens at that, a hand covering his brow in regret. "You know what, Lucy, how about we walk…"

"Nope, not happening."

Maybe she deserved that next little pinch on her nose. But then he's yawning again, such a drawn out, contagious yawn, and Lucy curls her legs up a little, pushing some of her hair back to get a better grip on Natsu's arm.

"That tickles…" He breathes.

"Natsu?"

"Huh?"

Is this happiness everlasting?"

Through sleepy eyes, Lucy makes out a rather blurry form of Natsu turning slightly, putting his free hand against her cheek. She didn't realize how cold her face was, until the contact.

"I think, it is."

Lucy doesn't remember who yawned first after that, because they both drift off, the last hint of magic wine a glowing cover over them in the night.


	5. Chapter 5

Hello, and a big thank you in advance to those who read and enjoyed this story. This marks the final chapter of Bad Behavior.

If any of you NaLu fans out there are interested in a NaLu fan zine, please check out this Tumblr project: naluzine.

Also big thanks to the band The Maine, as well as Hiro Mashima sensei, whose work brought so many people around the world happiness.

* * *

When Lucy wakes, her peripheral is full of Natsu. His nose, almost touching hers, his messy pink hair, tickling her bangs. It feels like the first time in a while that she's been this close to Natsu, but she doesn't mind; what really throws her off is how immobile she is, trapped in between one of his arms stretching from under her cheek as a pillow and around her back, and the other draped over her ribs, hard and weighty. Lucy doesn't quite remember ever waking up trapped like so, on all those nights he's snuck into her room without asking. But then again, she faintly recalls that it might be her fault, since she chose to use his arm as a pillow, first.

It embarrasses her but Natsu doesn't have to know that, so Lucy moves on, trying to loosen herself from those folded arms at her back. She peeks up, past the spiky pink strands of Natsu's head, and tints of pale yellow and gray tell her that it's early morning.

The tough encasement of Natsu's upper body feels too warm to simply give up, but Lucy pulls out anyway, pressing on his chest lightly to hoist herself up. She accidentally knees him in the thigh, and he lets out a slurred "Ow," blinking his eyes open.

Straightening Natsu's blazer around her shoulders and running her fingers through her hair, Lucy calls, "Natsu, it's morning."

He rolls onto his back, stretches long, and bounces up, sitting cross-legged. "Did we sleep that long?"

Lucy stands, shaking feeling into her arms before putting her hands out, waiting for Natsu to grab on. He does, and it's not like she wasn't expecting him to play that same old prank, but Lucy still staggers and almost falls on him again, when he pulls with his strength instead of getting up like a good boy.

So instead of answering his question, Lucy huffs and picks up Virgo's blanket, the empty bottle, and the two glasses, making her annoyance toward him plain as the waking lashes of daylight.

"Clean up after yourself, Natsu," she flips her hair at him with a big motion as she makes for the ladder.

The clock tells them that they slept on the rooftop a little over an hour. Most of the bodies strewn about the guild are still out, snoring. Except for the few female guild members, Lucy expects the lot of those bodies will be there, lifeless until well after midday. Typical, Fairy Tail goes wild and the aftermaths.

Natsu fetches a sleeping Happy from one of the tables, while Lucy smiles as she passes funny faces of her guild members, asleep without a care in the world. Tiptoeing by a large mass covered in a wool blanket, she suppresses a spurt of giggles with all her might. Jagged tips of blue and black hair and a dark cat's tail grow just beneath the wool edge, and Lucy has to fetch Natsu to point the endearing sight out to him. He just sticks his tongue out, before they step out into the full daylight.

That's when the drunk fatigue of magic wine really hits her. Lucy slouches, letting her forehead fall with a light thump right on Natsu's red insignia.

"Can we go get some decent sleep at home first, and then get ready to leave?" She mumbles into his arm.

Natsu yawns big, like a silent roar, as his response. "I'd better walk ya home, so you don't fall asleep in the middle of the road."

"Thanks… but you're not allowed to come inside. I want the bed to myself."

"So selfish, Lucy!"

She shoots him her best death glare with half-lidded eyes, but he starts ahead of her, which means her forehead loses its nice resting place. She chases after him, blinking away the sunlight, but tucking away the comfortable, sleeping faces of the guild members into her memory.

They talk mindlessly about what to pack, where they might start, which friends they might visit on the journey. Even in her sleepiness, it excites Lucy. Because as far as she can tell, this next adventure doesn't sound dangerous, doesn't sound life-threatening, doesn't sound like Lucy will have to worry about Natsu burning down things he's not supposed to. No desperate fighting to protect the name of the guild, no fear of having to protect each other from harm, no insecurities of a tomorrow that might never come.

And the comfort and assurance of a safe, hopeful, exciting new adventure to go on, wouldn't be possible without the rugged, pink haired fire dragon slayer, walking by her side. Lucy watches him while he goes on about eating fire in faraway lands. She takes him in like a fresh breath of air, quietly relishing in his presence, even as she nods or comments on his eager chatter. A glimpse at Happy, tucked away under Natsu's arm, and then back at each of Natsu's features, wondering if she'll ever see those glittery pink flames lighting up his skin again.

When they trail off the topic of their trip, Natsu starts humming the tune to Mira's "Hey Nineteen" absently. He's a terrible singer, and Lucy can't exactly say any better for herself, but she feels like singing along to the words anyway. The lyrics are carefree, like Natsu's toothy grin, and Happy adds the perfect little "Aye~" in between pauses, even in his sleep.

They arrive in front of Lucy's house, and she'll admit, she's a little disappointed. The night they both wanted to last forever is finally at its end, and the disappointment is a stubborn, annoying tickle in her chest. More so, because even though he's the one who said he didn't want the night to end first, Lucy can't find the slightest trace of regret in Natsu's alert eyes.

"So, I'll come pick you up in the afternoon?"

Lucy nods, trying and failing to hide a ridiculous pout in her lower lip.

"Alright! Then good night, Lucy! I mean, good morning!" He gives a little wave, turns, and is off.

Lucy turns to the front door, sticks her key into the keyhole, then leaves it. Instead of turning the key and heading up to her room like she's supposed to, Lucy finds her ears full of a distant, off-beat hum. It's Natsu, humming the guitar's chords and the drum's rhythm, calling on a swarm of black butterflies in her chest even though he's getting further and further away with every breath. The butterflies flap their wings and steal her voice and her sight until Lucy realizes how she's turned back the way she'd just come, running. He's still close by. His sloppy, wide-legged footsteps never did let him stray too far.

When Natsu hears the shuffling behind him, he looks back, not quite comprehending. Lucy reaches him in no time, pauses for a second to catch a big breath.

"Did you forget something, Lucy?"

She slaps her palms into his shoulders for a stronghold, searching for the right words. Waiting for the right words. It would all be a shocking wave of deja vu, except there's no fire flickering over his eyebrows this time. So Lucy makes up for it with a strange fire of her very own. She angles her face up, eyes focused, and meets him at the lips. Her mouth is a little dry, but so is Natsu's, and Happy is caught sort of in between them but it doesn't matter.

Lucy holds on long, summoning a burning boldness she didn't know she had. Natsu makes a muffled noise and that little accident somehow brings their lips into a perfect fit, where Lucy ponders how gentle his mouth is, every ridge and calloused patch of it. She manages to cling onto the boldness even as she breaks apart, letting their fitted mouths loose with a swift gasp. Natsu's face is a pale, dumbfounded wall - a look she's never seen on him before. It makes her laugh, even as an inexplicable spot of moisture tickles the corner of her eye.

"Lu…cy?"

She doesn't respond. She doesn't even bother to calm her bubbling laughter. She pulls up, kissing him again so that her loud laughter fizzles away in between them. He opens up to her, a hesitant couple of fingers ghosting at her neck, and she feels it. He's trembling. Natsu Dragneel is trembling! The little distraction is blissful, but Lucy decides to set her focus back on the cushion of his soothing lower lip. And then his upper. Then teeth, and pushing, and pulling, and wrinkling his dress shirt under her fingers, feeling the slightest of tremors on his chest and collar. He's so warm, at his lips and under his shirt and at the hands lost in her neck, and then, Natsu breaks free from her first, fighting for air.

She's just as out of breath as he is. Through all the panting, of untangling her fingers from his crumpled shirt and inching away until there's some room for fresh air between them, his eyes never leave hers. Lucy challenges him on, unblinking, and surprisingly enough she finds that there isn't much to be said after that. Nothing concrete comes to her mind, and not thinking, not panicking, just holding her partner's gaze; it calms her. Fades the disappointment away, bringing the night to a pause, but not an end.

One thing, does come to her mind. Words and phrases from the song they sang on their walk. She pulls on his hands, examining them, the rough and the scarred surface, and recalls the feeling of them trembling at her neck. It makes her spew the ugliest sort of a snort, which in turn makes Natsu blush and snatch his hands away.

"You weren't playing fair, Lucy! That… caught me… completely off guard! It's not like I was scared or anything! I was just way too thrown off by your little sneak attack!"

Lucy licks her lips and slides the big blazer she'd been wearing all night, off her shoulders. Smirking, letting velvet color her teasing tone, Lucy answers, "Here's your blazer back, Natsu. Thank you for letting me borrow it."

"You're… uh… welcome."

He stands there, not knowing what to do, fisting his blazer.

"You were humming, right?" Lucy dips her head, catching his gaze, her lips tickling when she sees the lingering flush at his cheekbones. "You're… terrible at humming, Natsu."

That does it for him. A fire dragon's pride overcomes all of his little trembles and blushes, and he turns on his heels with a huff loud enough to echo across town.

"Sorry my humming bothered ya! See you tomorrow! I mean, today!"

Lucy watches that jagged pink head of his blending into the sweet hues of the morning sky, growing smaller and smaller, for a long time before she finally finishes her night in the comfort of her dark room, sliding into her covers.

Dreams and re-living the playful exchange of soothing lips, intermingle in the fuzziness of Lucy's thoughts. She welcomes the sugary slumber, the peaceful wait for her next adventure.

* * *

It's difficult to hear own hums in the stuffy, foggy bathroom, and opening the door to let the fresh, cool air in makes Lucy sigh long and content. She tightens her towel around herself, picking back up mid-chorus, doing a little shimmy of a walk to her drawers.

Her ears pick up the second, lower tone of humming, matching her melody, before she catches the splash of pink hair and blue fur.

"Yo, Lucy!"

The anger rushing through her forehead can't be healthy, especially for someone who just walked out of a very warm place. "Cover your eyes! I'm a woman who just got out of the shower, for goodness sake!"

Lucy snatches up the nearest thing within arm's reach and chucks it in their general direction. Natsu catches it, frowning at the tiny text on the bottle.

"Ooooh, look Happy! It's a magic serum for making wrinkles go away!"

"Let me try it!"

He squeezes a palm full of the creamy liquid, half-ing with Happy and lathering it on his face, no doubt mimicking what he's seen of Lucy's own skin care routine.

"Stop it! That serum is worth more than your heads, you dumbos!"

Lucy darts toward them, struggling to keep her towel secure around her while her free arm reaches for her very expensive serum bottle.

Natsu lengthens his right arm back long behind him, giving Lucy an odd, judging sort of look. She stretches over him and that's when a leg comes around her, knocking on the back of her knees. Her legs give, Natsu hooks his free arm behind her and pulls so she lands sideways on one of his pointy knees, and he meets Lucy's burst of a gasp with his open, prying mouth. They fit against each other and close together, familiar movements of a few hours ago kicking in on instinct.

Lucy jerks when his tongue slides across hers, flailing away. Shoving back and standing, her wobbly footsteps take her one, two, three feet backward. With a start, she glances at Happy, who has his eyes closed, rubbing too much serum into his short blue furs.

Before Lucy can put her thoughts together, Natsu stands up, placing the serum bottle in her hand. "I thought about what you said, you know, when you were talking about the whole repaying me back for all those times I teased ya." He turns casually and sticks his head in her closet, fishing out her travel bag.

"At first I didn't think you'd be able to do it in one lifetime, but then you got me real good earlier this morning! So I had to get you back by playing the same trick. Did it work? Did it make you all shaky and embarrassed?" The next moment he peeks his pink head out of her closet, Natsu's hands are full of Lucy's winter coats, her boots, and mismatched sets of her travel outfits.

"Natsu, how do you know where all of my travel stuff is?! Hey wait, that shirt doesn't match with those shorts at all!"

Fanning her face and huffing, Lucy stomps toward him and points to the correct pairs of outfits. With annoyed eyebrows and some shrugs here and there, Natsu generally follows Lucy's directions, packing the outfits accordingly in her bag. In the midst of pointing to the last shirt plus skirt combination, he stops her hand midway, unfolding her fingers out and laying them in his palm.

"Huh? No fair, you're not even that shaky…"

He lets her hand go, his lips twisting in a childish frown. Lucy hides her hand behind her back before he can catch the sporadic, unnatural tremor. The heat surging up her face is harder to hide, but Lucy does her best to cover it with thick, wet hair, and a rapid turn, stalking back to finally fetch some underwear.

"Eh? Natsu? Did you do it already? Did you kiss Lucy? Did she get really embarrassed?" Happy floats toward Natsu, the fur on his face matted from too much serum.

"I don't think I did it good enough. She didn't get super jittery or red."

"Aw, I missed it! Next time, you have to do it when I'm watching, Natsu! That'll make her even more embarrassed!"

Lucy just about chucks her serum bottle at those idiots again, but stops herself just in time. Best not to waste an expensive product on such… animals.

"Quit planning out how to embarrass me when I'm standing right here, you two!" Lucy yells as she heads for the bathroom, a change of clothes finally in hand. "And even if I close this door, I'll still be able to hear you!"

She rushes through everything. Dabbing on lotion, putting on her clothes, brushing her hair. She can't help but clench her eyes shut, expecting the worst for when she walks out, like finding her room half trashed or splattered with all kinds of her expensive makeup and skincare products. So when her forehead runs into something hard after her first two footsteps, it takes Lucy a good minute to recover, blinking her eyes open.

"I packed all your clothes!"

With narrowed eyes, Lucy peers past Natsu's shoulder, to where Happy is swimming in her open underwear drawer, trying some of them on over his ears.

"Lemme… just… okay you know what, thank you. Natsu. I'll just finish grabbing my toiletries, and then we'll pop our heads in the guild before catching a train…"

It doesn't even humor her anymore, how tired she is when they haven't even left on their next "mission" yet. She pads over to her bed, inspecting the contents of her bag, mostly full now. It turns out Natsu has a pretty good idea of the clothes and underwear she prefers during her lengthy trips.

It's still relieving, that instead of making a big mess in her room like they're accustomed to, Natsu and Happy opted for helping Lucy pack her bag. Even while she finishes tucking away the smaller necessities in the corner pockets, Natsu and Happy behave for the most part. She makes sure to take a clean washcloth and rub off some of the gooey serum from Happy's face, then digs out a pair of blue underwear from the cat's little travel sack. Flicking the little cat in the forehead for swiping.

"Alright! I'm ready to go! Let's stop by the guild and let the others know we're off!"

Natsu raises his head from where he's been crouched at her desk, nose scrunched in concentration. "Go to the guild? I was just gonna leave a note here." He holds up a piece of paper smudged with large, red letters.

"Natsu, that's not a pen. That's my lipstick."

"It still works."

"Give me that!"

Lucy ignores Natsu's pout and discards his lipstick letter. He'd managed to fill up the whole page with nothing but three words, anyway. She grabs a fresh, new sheet, an actual pen, and shoos Natsu away, taking the chair for herself. He stands over her and digs his chin into her right shoulder, and Lucy has to stop a moment to complain about how hard his chin is. Happy flies off, announcing that he has to go check Lucy's fridge for any leftover fish they need to take care of.

When Lucy finishes the letter, Natsu asks her to read it out loud for him. She's a little timid, but it's Natsu, so she does it anyway. And then, the lost, faraway look in Natsu's eyes after she finishes, lets bloom a little dot of uncertainty in her own mind, even as she's searching his gaze for something she recognizes. Fire.

"Natsu?"

"Huh?"

"Are you sure you want to go on this trip? Are you sure about being away from the guild for this long?"

He looks down at her in her chair, and somehow he seems so much bigger than he really is. Lucy's uncertainty grows a little bigger, because they're members of Fairy Tail after all. Leaving family behind is something she'd never imagined Natsu Dragneel approving of.

He puts a hand on her shoulder then, smiling. A flash of the setting sun caught in the corner of his eye. He bends down, touching his mouth over hers. Lucy's mind dissolves into ashes and light. He breathes, and she breathes against him, closing down on the gentle bottom lip. He opens and runs a light tongue along the corner of her mouth. He's a fast learner, too fast for her to keep up with, and she lets him have the upper hand through a quiet whimper before pulling away.

She doesn't understand what the tears in her eyes mean. She blinks them away furiously, putting her palm on the back of his hand, still resting on her shoulder. "Something's changed about you. About us," she breathes.

Natsu reaches past her, grabs her letter and some tape, and puts out a hand to help her stand.

"Maybe, and maybe not. I don't know Lucy. I don't particularly feel any different about you. I think…"

He slings his huge bag over his shoulders, then waits for Lucy to grab her bag. Lucy gives her room one last sweeping check, making sure all of her belongings are cleaned up and in the right places. In the last minute, Lucy grabs the envelope with about four months' rent ready, to drop off at the landlady's mailbox.

By the doorway, Lucy shuts off her lights, and they stand there in the dark. One of Natsu's hands on the doorknob.

"I think what you wrote in the letter, is just what I feel right now. I don't know about change and all that fancy stuff. I don't really know if three or four months, if that's really as long as you keep saying it is. I just wanna talk to you for now. Gray, Gajeel, Laxus, Elfman… if I'm around them, I'll just wanna pick fights. But I don't wanna do that. I wanna talk to you more!"

She can make out his smile, full to the brim with his crazy, honest sense of joy, even in the stuffy darkness. She feels the tug on her cheeks, the smile stretching across her teeth, big and maybe even a little ugly. But she understands what those tears meant. She understands.

The door opens from the outside, bumping into Natsu, and Happy pokes his head in. "I ate the fish and the pudding you had left in your fridge, Lucy!"

"That's… good." With a finger, Lucy flicks away the little tears, because they don't need to be there.

Natsu pulls on her by an arm. "Are you ready to go then?"

"Let's go!"

Lucy locks her door firm and tight, Natsu tapes their letter on the front right below her room number, and they drop off Lucy's rent money. They have to break into a run when they realize, they're running late for their train.

She's off, on her next adventure with her best friends, and it's useless to fill her head with worries about the guild members staying behind, or the cool air left lingering on her lips from Natsu's kisses, or anything so foreign and far off in the future as… marriage. Lucy is lucky to have a lot. She's just as lucky to have nothing much to lose. And losing a little bit of the track of time, or the pale and unsightly shades of blue uncertainties, surely is no big loss at all.

* * *

Lucy and Natsu's letter to the guild members:

 _"Dear Erza, Gray, Wendy, Juvia, and/or anyone else who might come and find this letter,_

 _We've decided to go off in search of Aquarius's key. We plan on searching as far and as wide as possible, even outside of Fiore if we have to. We don't know how long we'll be gone. Maybe three, maybe four months, maybe up to a year. But we trust that we leave Fairy Tail in good hands._

 _Congratulations on your engagements again, Elfman, Evergreen, Erza, Jellal, Levy, and Gajeel. No matter what you hear, please do not believe that we chose to go away now to avoid getting involved in the stressful, arduous, nerve-racking, heinous process of arranging and planning for weddings. It is not true. We're definitely not leaving without even saying goodbye because we don't want to become enslaved for the sake of Titania's grandiose, three-couple, magic wedding. We're leaving now, because, we actually have some clues as to where Aquarius might be! It was Scorpio, yo know Aquarius's boyfriend, told us that he heard a rumor that Aquarius's key might be in… Alvarez._

 _We will miss Fairy Tail very much while we're gone, but with so many reliable members, we are sure that the next few months of wedding planning and preparations will be full of true happiness and fun for you all. Don't worry about us. We'll do our best to stay safe on our journey, and it's not like Natsu is going to die without Wendy around to relieve his motion sickness. He's lived through it all these years._

 _Don't look for us. We have no idea where we'll be, and it would be a waste of the valuable members' time to come look for us. We'll send postcards instead! And when we return, Natsu requests a duel with Guildarts, Laxus, Erza, Jellal, Gray, Gajeel, Mirajane, Wendy, and every other member of the guild. Happy requests that Charla go on a fishing date with him. And for me, I would like to request that the guild not sell any unapproved, weird photos of me to magazines without my consent!_

 _Also, we hope to meet some nice new members when we return! We'll be back soon!_

 _With love,_

 _Lucy Heartfilia, Natsu Dragneel, and Happy."_


End file.
